10 hours ago
Paddy Quinn, the Tyrone man who donned the sky blue jersey
The All-Ireland quarter-final between Dublin and Tyrone on Saturday is a fixture that may leave some unsure as to who will prevail, and place themselves in the frame as Sam Maguire contenders, given the rollercoaster nature of both side's seasons so far
Both inter-county sides have had mixed seasons, by all accounts, but one man who surprisingly isn't feeling mixed, is Tyrone-born-and-bred ex-Dublin player, Paddy Quinn, who says his hopes firmly lie with his home county despite being 'adopted' into the Dublin fold in 2013.
"I'm a Tyrone man at heart, that's what I'd say," Quinn told RTÉ Sport.
Despite strong connections to the capital, and several players from his club in the place he now calls home, Na Fianna, on the panel, Quinn makes his intentions clear for when the ball throws-in at Croke Park on Saturday at 6:15pm.
"Tyrone is still where the heart would be, my wife and kids, they can wear the Dublin jerseys at the weekend, but I'll be a Tyrone man."
Tyrone native Quinn has donned the sky blue but admits it wasn't an achievement he envisioned when playing for Derrylaughan Kevin Barrys, before work pulled him to Dublin in 2008.
"You have to put the emotions to one side, when you're at that level, you just buy into it 100%, you're part of a team, part of a panel as normal, it does feel a bit strange.
"I have a Tyrone accent and when you're in a huddle with lots of Dublin lads, you can feel it a little bit.
"When you're putting on the Dublin jersey for the first time, I can't deny it did feel a bit strange putting that on, because I would have grown up supporting Tyrone all my life."
The chartered accountant remained with the Tyrone-based club, also the home of the county's current captain Brian Kennedy, and travelled the three-hour journey multiple times a week before the time in the car took its toll.
Quinn transferred to Na Fianna, which he admits wasn't an easy decision, but following a family connection he found league success and ended up with a long stint on the senior squad, finishing up just last year.
"I decided to transfer clubs, which was a very difficult decision to make at the time... I ended up captaining Na Fianna for three or four years, and won a couple of league titles."
It was during the the 2012 season, when Na Fianna won the Dublin league, that Quinn caught the eye of newly-minted Dublin manager, Jim Gavin, which he says wasn't a complete surprise.
"I just got a call one day to ask if I'd be interested in joining the Dublin panel, that was Jim Gavin, I started his term.
"I knew I was kind of in the conversation... But you just don't know whether someone would be willing to call somebody who's not from the county, so I can't say it was completely out of the blue.
"When the call comes in, it still catches you by surprise at the time, I suppose, but it didn't take me long to come to my decision."
Is Quinn a fan of Gavin's FRC rule changes? He says his ex-manager seems to have approached the task in the same way he approached his coaching roles, methodical to a tee.
"I think, what he's done there with the rules, it's just been so methodically thought out, and you've got good people around him as well to help iron out any sort of issues.
"Everything is based on facts and evidence, and so I'm sure his approach to these rules, they've been looking at the games and looking at the statistics and looking at it in the cool light of day rather than getting swayed by emotions too much, and that's kind of the way it was in his coaching methods as well."
There was a similar approach used when Quinn was dropped from the panel in 2013 just before the championship season, he remained around the squad but didn't tog out again but explained being dropped is difficult for any player.
"It's tough for a manager to release a player, it's tough him making that call, but it's tough receiving the call.
"In fairness to Jim, he gave me a call at the time when I was first dropped off the panel and we had a good conversation about it, and he was frank and honest and I could have no qualms about it really.
"Every player who's received that call at the end of the season is tired of that, but ultimately players receive it at some part of their journey and that's just part and parcel of it."
Quinn never played for his home county and described himself as a "late developer", receiving the call for the county he probably never expected to play for at 31, and he of course received some expected "stick" togging out in sky blue.
"I never played Tyrone minor, or was on development squad, so I was probably a bit of a late developer.
"Once you're in Dublin, you're kind of out of sight, out of mind.
"Plenty of stick from lads back home, that's for sure."
The Tyrone man has been "following both teams closely" and thinks the Red Hands could have the edge in a closely-fought battle, with their "firepower" up front a possible difference maker in Saturday's quarter-final fixture.
"It's set up fairly evenly, the two teams have been up and down in different parts of the season.
"Tyrone obviously disappointed at getting relegated, but there was a lot of green shoots in the league, they beat Dublin convincingly on that last day, and they've shown good form in the group stages of the Sam Maguire... Tyrone have got the firepower up front for sure.
"McCurry has been playing so well this year, he's been a great foil for Darragh Canavan, and the two of them are big major threats.
"They're a strong attacking threat, probably their half-forward line hasn't really kicked into gear as much as we might have hoped."
The other edge his home county have is the two-week break they have been afforded for their league-topping win in the round robin.
Quinn thinks Tyrone's defence will survive without Michael McKernan who came off clutching his shoulder in their 13-point win over Cavan to top the table.
"The two-week break is massive for Tyrone, just to clear a couple of niggles they might have had, now McKernan I think is going to be out, which is a huge blow defensively, but they have a bit of cover in defence.
"I'm looking forward to watching them all, but I'd be quietly hopeful, I suppose, of a Tyrone win."
Follow a live blog on the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals on Saturday on and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Saturday Game at 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Watch two All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals, Meath v Galway and Armagh v Kerry, from 1.15pm on Sunday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
